Prof. Frank Hildy: "Reconstructing the Architecture of Shakespeare's Theatres: Archaeology, Iconography, and Archives"

Professor Franklin J. Hildy will give a talk entitled "Reconstructing the Architecture of Shakespeare's Theatres: Archaeology, Iconography, and Archives" for the Medieval & Early Modern Studies Field Committee Lecture Series.

Professor Franklin J. Hildy will give a talk entitled "Reconstructing the Architecture of Shakespeare's Theatres: Archaeology, Iconography, and Archives" for the Medieval & Early Modern Studies Field Committee 2013-14 Lecture Series in the Art/Sociology building on Wednesday, October 23 at 4pm.

This talk will examine the reconstruction of Shakespeare's Theatre in London, which opened in 1997, and the reconstruction of an Elizabethan style indoor playhouse, the Wanamaker Theatre, which will open in 2014. These are examples of applied theatre history with wide ranging implication for the concept of authenticity. The talk will focus on how, when direct evidence is insufficient, cognate evidence is turned to in an attempt to fill in the blanks. When even cognate evidence does not suffice, historians note possible options, "this feature could have looked like A, or B or perhaps even C."  But when an actual building is being constructed, only one option can be chosen and each choice made will limit the possible options for other components of the structure.  The talk will review what we have learned since 1997 which would make a twenty-first century reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe different from the one which now exists in London.

Franklin J. Hildy is Professor of theatre history and director of the PhD program in the School of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies. He serves as a member of the Architecture Research Group and the Globe Council of Advisors for the Trusties of Shakespeare's Globe in London and is Director of The Shakespeare Globe Center (USA)-Research Archive.   He is an elected member of the Association of Historic Theatres in Europe, the founding convener for the Theatre Architecture Working Group of the International Federation for Theatre Research and a co-convener of the Shakespeare Performance Research Group for the American Society for Theatre Research.  He is co-author, with Oscar G. Brockett, of five  editions of  History of the Theatre,  author of Shakespeare at the Maddermarket, editor of New Issues in the Reconstruction of Shakespeare's Theatre, and is the General Editor of theatre-finder.org, an on line guide to the historic theatre of the world.  In 2010 he was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Theatre.